Going through my inbox yesterday, I was excited to hear, in the weekly The Stranger Presents newsletter, that The Blow will be playing at this year’s installment of the Genius Awards…for free! I just saw The Blow for the first time at this year’s What the Heck Fest (see my previous post on Mount Eerie’s performance at What the Heck) and was really impressed. Khaela Maricich is quite the performer: at What the Heck she would work herself into a sweaty, angst-fueled dancing frenzy, then cool off with rambling–but surprisingly captivating–stage banter. Her music is an adolescent, heart-on-the-table display of raw emotion imbued with adult sexuality by her crooning, alternately coy and hungry, hot-breath vocals–an enrapturing combination. It was moving, seductive, and fun.
“She wasn’t lying!” I said to myself. I had talked with Khaela briefly in between sets during What the Heck, and she had informed me, after discussion of her Huffy-brand fanny pack and my Bill Murray t-shirt, that she would be playing one show in Seattle in the fall. I returned home and checked her MySpace page, only to discover no Seattle dates listed among her tour stops.
Enter the Stranger Presents, 8.16.07, informing me of the upcoming Genius Awards gig–indeed, a show in Seattle, in the fall. My faith restored, I flipped over to Google Calendar to throw this sure-to-be-amazing, free show on my schedule. Let’s see, evening of September 14th…surely nothing else going on. Or at least nothing else that could compete with this…
Enter me, crestfallen: September 14th is also the date of Animal Collective’s upcoming performance at Neumo’s.
Why, The Stranger, why? There wasn’t one night you could have scheduled your Genius Awards when nothing else was happening in Seattle? Like a Monday morning? (To be fair, I’ll throw out a “Why, Neumo’s, why?”–I don’t really know who booked whom first. They obviously weren’t taking my personal musical interests into account.)
But I suppose I can’t complain too much. Pretty tough life out here in Seattle with too many cool concerts going on all at once (and it’s not even Bumbershoot). I still haven’t decided which one to go to yet, though I’m leaning towards Animal Collective since I haven’t seen them live yet.
Side note: Former The Blow-compatriot Jona Bechtolt (a.k.a. YACHT) will be performing in Seattle at the Vera Project on a day in September other than the 14th–the 7th, to be exact–with the Dirty Projectors and White Rainbow.
